When you’re a well-known and respected thespian and you’re making a film, getting people to star in it must be pretty easy – you end up just picking up the phone and calling friends. Or, just announce the thing and watch the actors flit to it like moths to a flame. Unless your name is John Travolta, of course.

Fortunately for Anthony Hopkins, his name is, well, Anthony Hopkins, and that carries a little clout. He already has Christian Slater, Kevin McCarthy and Gavin Grazer aboard his odd-sounding Slipstream. Now John Turturro, Camryn Manheim, Jeffrey Tambor, S Epatha Merkerson, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Lawford and Michael Clarke Duncan have – pause to get our breath back – joined the cast.

So what has attracted this hefty list? We’re not convinced it’s the plot – which purports to be a noir comedy about an actor/wannabe screenwriter who is chucked into “a vortex where time, dreams and reality collide in an increasingly whirling slipstream.” Um… ‘kay.

"With production under way, I'm looking forward to this journey into independent filmmaking with our wonderful cast and a very talented and dedicated crew," Hopkins gushed to The Hollywood Reporter, pausing only to deliver an electric shock to a passing sparrow whose tweeting sounded like it was saying “vanity project”.